Table of Contents

New York Drug Law Evaluation Project, 1973 (ICPSR 7656)

Principal Investigator(s):Association of the Bar of the City of New York; Drug Abuse Council, Inc.

Summary:

This data collection contains the results of a study
created in response to New York State's 1973 revision of its criminal
laws relating to drug use. The Association of the Bar of the City of
New York and the Drug Abuse Council jointly organized a joint
committee and a research project to collect data, in a systematic
fashion, (1) to ascertain the repercussions of the drug law revision,
(2) to analyze, to the degree possible, why the law was revised, and
(3) to identify any general principles or specific lessons that could
be deriv... (more info)

This data collection contains the results of a study
created in response to New York State's 1973 revision of its criminal
laws relating to drug use. The Association of the Bar of the City of
New York and the Drug Abuse Council jointly organized a joint
committee and a research project to collect data, in a systematic
fashion, (1) to ascertain the repercussions of the drug law revision,
(2) to analyze, to the degree possible, why the law was revised, and
(3) to identify any general principles or specific lessons that could
be derived from the New York experience that could be helpful to other
states as they dealt with the problem of illegal drug use and related
crime. This data collection contains five files from the study. Part 1
contains information gathered in a survey investigating the effects of
the 1973 predicate felony provisions on crime committed by repeat
offenders. Data include sex, age at first arrest, county and year of
sampled felony conviction, subsequent arrests up to December 1976,
time between arrests, time incarcerated between arrests, and number
and type of short-span arrests and incarcerations. Part 2 contains
data gathered in a survey meant to estimate the number and proportion
of felony crimes attributable to narcotics users in Manhattan. Case
records for male defendants, aged 16 and older, who were arraigned on
at least one felony charge in Manhattan's Criminal Court, in 1972 and
1975, were sampled. Data include original and reduced charges and
penal code numbers, and indicators of first, second, third, and fourth
drug status. Part 3 contains data gathered in a survey designed to
estimate the number and proportion of felony crimes attributable to
narcotics users in Manhattan. Case records for male defendants, aged
16 and older, who were arraigned on at least one felony charge in
Manhattan's Criminal Court or Manhattan's Supreme Court, were sampled
from 1971 through 1975. Eighty percent of the sample was drawn from
the Criminal Court while the remaining 20 percent was taken from the
Supreme Court. Data include date of arraignment, age, number of
charges, penal code numbers for first six charges, bail information
(e.g., if it was set, amount, and date bail made), disposition and
sentence, indications of first through fourth drug status, first
through third drug of abuse, and treatment status of defendant. Part 4
contains data gathered in a survey that determined the extent of
knowledge of the 1973 drug law among ex-drug users in drug treatment
programs, and to discover any changes in their behavior in response to
the new law. Interviews were administered to non-randomly selected
volunteers from three modalities: residential drug-free, ambulatory
methadone maintenance, and the detoxification unit of the New York
City House of Detention for Men. Data include sources of knowledge of
drug laws (e.g., from media, subway posters, police, friends, dealers,
and treatment programs), average length of sentence for various drug
convictions, maximum sentence for such crimes, the pre-1974 sentence
for such crimes, type of plea bargaining done, and respondent's
opinion of the effects of the new law on police activity, the street,
conviction rates, and drug use. Part 5 contains data from a survey
that estimated the number and proportion of felony crimes attributable
to narcotics users in Manhattan. Detained males aged 16 and older in
Manhattan pre-trial detention centers who faced at least one current
felony charge were sampled. Data include date of admission and
discharge, drug status and charges, penal code numbers for first
through sixth charge, bail information, and drug status and
treatment.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Study Description

Citation

Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Drug Abuse Council, Inc. NEW YORK DRUG LAW EVALUATION PROJECT, 1973. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1980. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07656.v1

Universe:
Ex-drug users, repeat offenders, and male defendants aged
16 or older in the criminal court system and in pre-trial detention
centers in New York City between the years 1971 and 1976.

Data Types:
survey data, and administrative records data

Methodology

Sample:
Part 1: Two random samples were taken for the study. One
consisted of randomly selected days between October 1970 and
September, 1971. The other sample consisted of randomly selected days
between October 1972 and September 1973. For each selected day, all
cases in which a person had been convicted of a non-drug felony and given
a non-incarceration sentence were selected. All information about the
offender was noted. This information was then given to the New York
State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DJCS). The DJCS traced
the criminal histories of each offender through December 1976. Only
cases in which "rap sheets" (criminal histories) were found were
used. Part 2: Two small samples of approximately 225 cases in each of
two time periods, one pre-law (January 1972 through June 1973), and one
post-law (July 1974 through December 1975), were drawn to determine the
user/non-user composition of this group of felony charges which were
reduced or dismissed at first arraignment. In addition, two samples of
approximately 240 cases each were randomly selected from the
population of felony cases entering criminal court arraignment. Two
time periods were sampled: one a pre-law period, January 1972-June
1973, and the second a post-law period, July 1974-December 1975. The
results from the two samples made it possible to derive the overall
rates at which felonies are reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed at
criminal court arraignment. Part 3: In order to correct the charge
distribution by user status from the pre-trial detention population, a
sample of cases was gathered in the Supreme and Criminal Courts of
Manhattan from all cases showing up in detention flow. In order to
match the cases from detention, only felony cases surviving
arraignment were selected. The sample was divided between Supreme
Court cases and criminal court felony cases surviving
arraignment. Since 20 percent of all felony arrests result in
indictment, the sample was stratified: 20 percent Supreme Court and 80
percent Criminal Court. In two 15-month time periods, one pre-law
period (January 1972-March 1973), and one post-law period (October
1974-December 1975), 901 cases were sampled. Part 4: For the study,
45-minute interviews were conducted with a non-random selection of 291
volunteers among clients in drug treatment programs in New York
City. Three modalities of treatment are represented: residential
drug-free, ambulatory methadone maintenance, and the detoxification
unit of the New York City House of Detention for Men. Part 5: The
sample was limited to Manhattan, and restricted to the male detention
population, the contention being that males commit a majority of the
felonies. A random sample was taken of over 500 felony cases per year for
the years 1971-1975 from the Department of Corrections records kept on
all defendants detained. The sample was stratified as follows:
adolescent males constituted 20 percent of the sample, and adult males
80 percent. In sampling the prison records, misdemeanor cases and
records of sentenced prisoners transferred to the detention facilities
for work assignments were excluded. All records of persons detained on
felony charges were included in the sample, including the group of
prisoners who spent only a few hours in detention.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

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